A glass orb filled with swirling violet light rests on a small clear stand against a dark indigo background.

Original artwork, not a still

GamesMania Interview

Douglas Adams

You have to be careful, I've come to realize. Once in a hotel in New York, [I met] the receptionist who was just....mindbogglingly dense. You have one of these conversations where you really think the universe is sort of bending around you, it's so stupid.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker cautions that some people can be so obtuse that an ordinary exchange becomes absurd. A hotel receptionist's density is described as so extreme that the conversation felt as though reality itself were warping around it, with the exaggeration delivering the joke.

Context reviewed

Share this quote